Deploy API to Railway

This guide walks you through deploying the Elysia API server to Railway.

Why Railway?

• Zero-config Bun support - Nixpacks auto-detects Bun
• Pre-configured - The API includes a railway.toml ready to go
• Great DX - Git-push deploys, excellent dashboard
• Monorepo friendly - Perfect for Eden Stack's structure

Prerequisites

• A Railway account
• Your Neon database URL
• Git repository connected to Railway

Step 1: Connect Repository

1. Go to railway.com and create a new project
2. Select Deploy from GitHub repo
3. Choose your Eden Stack repository
4. Railway will detect the monorepo structure

Step 2: Configure the Service

Railway auto-detects the railway.toml in apps/api/. Configure the service:

1. Click on the service and go to Settings
2. Set the Root Directory to apps/api
3. The railway.toml handles the rest:

[build]
builder = "nixpacks"
buildCommand = "bun install --frozen-lockfile"
 
[deploy]
startCommand = "bun run start"
healthcheckPath = "/health"
healthcheckTimeout = 100
restartPolicyType = "on_failure"
restartPolicyMaxRetries = 3

Step 3: Set Environment Variables

In the Railway dashboard, go to Variables and add:

# Required
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=your-32-char-secret
BETTER_AUTH_URL=https://your-web-app.vercel.app
CORS_ORIGIN=https://your-web-app.vercel.app
 
# Optional (add as needed)
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_...
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...
RESEND_API_KEY=re_...
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
INNGEST_EVENT_KEY=...
INNGEST_SIGNING_KEY=...

Tip: Use Railway's Variable References to share variables between services (e.g., ${{web.PUBLIC_URL}}).

Step 4: Deploy

Railway deploys automatically on git push. You can also:

# Install Railway CLI
npm install -g @railway/cli
 
# Login
railway login
 
# Link to your project
railway link
 
# Manual deploy
railway up

Step 5: Verify

Once deployed, Railway provides a public URL like your-app-api.up.railway.app.

Test the health endpoint:

curl https://your-app-api.up.railway.app/health

You should see:

{ "status": "ok" }

Step 6: Connect Web App

Update your web app's environment to point to the deployed API:

# In your Vercel project settings or .env.production
VITE_API_URL=https://your-app-api.up.railway.app

Redeploy your web app to pick up the change.

Custom Domain

1. Go to Settings > Networking > Public Networking
2. Click Generate Domain or add a custom domain
3. Update DNS records as instructed

Monitoring

Railway provides built-in monitoring:

• Logs - Real-time log streaming in dashboard
• Metrics - CPU, memory, and network usage
• Deployments - History with rollback support

View logs via CLI:

railway logs

Scaling

Railway scales automatically based on traffic. For manual control:

1. Go to Settings > Scaling
2. Adjust vCPU and Memory as needed
3. Enable Horizontal Scaling for multiple instances

Environment-Specific Deployments

Create separate environments for staging and production:

1. Go to Environments in project settings
2. Create staging and production environments
3. Each environment has its own variables and deployments

Troubleshooting

Build Fails

Check that apps/api/package.json has a start script:

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "bun run src/index.ts"
  }
}

Health Check Fails

Ensure your API has a /health endpoint:

app.get('/health', () => ({ status: 'ok' }));

Connection Issues

Verify CORS_ORIGIN matches your web app's domain exactly.

Next Steps

• Deploy to Vercel - Deploy the web frontend
• Background Jobs - Set up Inngest for production